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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Amy Waldman Smith, an amazing glass artist and fellow member of the Toronto Bead Society, makes these amazing bead sets. They etched glass dotted with fine silver. I have a number of these sets but have done nothing with them.

I started with the set that is browns, oranges, reds and yellows. I strung them with two different Swarovski crystals and small silver beads.

I made a matching set of earrings.

My other two sets have fewer beads. So I designed a section of beading which I extended with pieces of sterling silver chain.

I wore the blue one to work yesterday and the jump ring holding the toggle opened. I am going to change them to split rings to make it more secure.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

One of the other pieces that I finished this weekend I started weeks ago. It was draped on one of my display forms all this time because I was not sure if I was happy with the design. Looking at again this weekend I decided that the design need one small change. I added smaller crystals on either side of the opalite drops. This allowed the piece to drape better. Here is the finished necklace.

Every so often you have to restring a necklace. This one needed to be done because my hair kept catching in the clasp. I decided to change the design as well. I have removed the small silver spacers on either side of the Swarovski crystals.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Aren't these Swarovski pearls beautiful. They are 6mm midnight blue pearls. I could not decide what to do with them.

I decided to go simple. I have strung 150 with a size 15 seed bead between each so that it looks like they are knotted. I used very fine Soft Touch by SoftFlex. It is so fine and flexible that you can knot it. I tied the ends together to create one long, continuous necklace.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

I am rereading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (it was just issued in ebook format). On the bus this morning I read the passage where Bilbo sees Smaug for the very first time. He describes him as "a vast red-golden dragon".

I am inspired to make a third dragon box using reds and golds on a black, grey or stone coloured background.

My first dragon box was using colours similar to the ones used in the Julia Pretl's book. My second was inspired by Saphira, the dragon in Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

I will look at my delicas tonight to chose the colours. I know that I have a 24 kt gold plated delica that I can use.

It is First Communion time here in Toronto. I was asked to create a gift for a young girl's first communion. Using the 1 drape gothic pattern from Rypan Designs and some light rose Swarovski crystals I created this.

To make a matching bracelet and earring set I did some simple stringing.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

As I was helping pack up Rypan Designs' booth at last weekend's bead fair. I asked Maria for two of the blue Rock Candy kits. It is a basic stringing kit for a bracelet with small Sodalite donuts, other semi precious stone, and silver spacers. I have made one of the bracelets before.

I created this necklace using the two kits. I added some pillow shaped bali silver spacers and Swarovski crystals. It looks great with the bracelet.

Monday, May 4, 2009

I was able to get the beads that I needed to finish the first of the boxes in this series at the bead fair this weekend. I had only a few rows of the hem and then the last rows of the lid to do. I did the few hem rows and started the last lid rows to finish, but noticed that I had not done the row before the hem correctly. I had to undo the four hem rows and the incorrect row. I then redid everything following the pattern. Here is the finished box.

The inspiration for it was a picture of a beauty pink tipped surf anemone in Margie Deeb's Beaders Color Palette book. Here is a similar picture.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

At yesterday's Toronto Bead Society Bead Fair I took a class with Cindy Vroom for a beaded ric rac bracelet. Her original bracelet had it done in two colours with 4 mm crystals. I decided that I wanted to do it with just one colour. I had some of the new Swarovski Dark Sapphire 4 mm crystals. I matched it with a deep blue seed beads. This bracelet it done using chevron stitch, which is a trianglar stitch. Here is the finished bracelet.